South Korean Police Arrested People Mining Cryptocurrency With Illegal Electricity

Korean Police Busted Fourteen People Mining Bitcoin With Illegal Use of Cheap Electricity

The South Korean police have arrested 14 people found guilty of mining cryptocurrency with illegal electrical supply.

The arrested people confessed they had been mining using this means since May 2017.

South Korea: A recent report reaching Cryptona.co revealed that the South Korean police have apprehended 14 people from 13 firms in South Korea who are illegally making use of cheap electrical supply from industrial complexes for cryptocurrencies mining.

According to the report, the people were caught carrying out illegal mining in 4 different facilities in the southwestern city of Gwangju in South Korea. The Gwangju Metropolitan Police Agency announced on Sunday that the mining activities are illegal because it violates rules regarding factory use.

The report added that firms that set up mining activities in such facilities are charged with electricity costs about 10% lower than what firms in general areas are charged, besides lower rentals.

Each of the 13 firms was reported to have installed between 100 to 350 cryptocurrency mining gadgets within their complexes and had been involved in cryptocurrency mining since last year May.

1 of the firms as situated in the Jingok Industrial Complex, 3 in the Nano Industrial Complex, 3 in the Pyeongdong Industrial Complex and 6 in the Hanam Industrial Complex.

This is not the first time that crypto miners would be busted for illegal use of subsidized electrical power both office and public areas in South Korea. For instance, an electronics retail marketplace, August 2017, banned every vendor from mining cryptocurrencies in the stores. Another electronics shopping mall located in Seoul, Yongsam Market, also placed a ban on cryptocurrency mining in the stores with claims that it poses safety risks and increases utility bills.

This action is not in any way related to clamping down on cryptocurrency as the activities were actually illegal. However, South Korea allows legal crypto mining and trading. South Korean investors are currently making plans to acquire the Bitstamp cryptocurrency exchange.

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